The new artwork appears to show some kind of katana-welding cowboy. The images shown so far are merely snippets from the final print magazine, and we'll have to wait until the physical issue hits the news stands before we know if they have any juicy screen shots to show us.

The issue in question is expected to reach US stores on the 12th May.

In the meantime though, we're liking the new artistic direction Ubisoft is taking with this. Hopefully the game play will improve on the rather disappointing prequel.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

The Wii is totally full of kiddy games, and the small handful of excellent M-rated titles isn't convincing me otherwise. If Red Steel 2 doesn't use the motionplus, it seems like a pretty useless sequel.

Crap, I was hoping the cover story would have been Muramasa: The Demon Blade when Nintendo Power said it would be covering "one of the year's biggest action games on the Wii". Instead we get Red Steel 2. Hopefully Wii motion plus will be enough to fix the god-awful controls! I want this game to be good but I still cringe whenever I hear the name Red Steel!

The guy on the cover reminds me of Justice from AFRO SAMURAI. I really liked Red Steel when it wasn't doing swords (so 90% of the time I liked it.) I think this could be really good since they have had plenty of time to improve the first game.

cell-shading doesn't really bother me, its actually a good way to take of advantage of the Wii's less than spectacular visuals. its mediocre sequels to already mediocre games that bother me; lets hope ubisoft can dig Red Steel out of the grave its in.

I'm playing Red Steel right now for the first time and I'm having a blast! The game isn't perfect, but it's good fun nontheless. I'm thinking the use of the WiiMotionPlus will make the sequel really, really great.

its confirmed as cell shaded according to the released information so far "APPARENTLY ITS CELL SHADED" im ok with it if it means a great use of the tech like say wind waker but if its generic cell shading like xiii fps on ps2 gc xbox pc or jet grind radio IM GOING TO BE WELL PIIISSED OFF

metroid prime 2 mixed metroid prime art with cell shading and it worked well if its cleaver use of cell shading dreat but if its cel shaded for quicj buck reasons witch is what i expect from ubi ill scream

concept sems great but cell shading scares mii

hopfully im proven wring and it looks stella 60 FRAMES PER SECOND CONFIRMED